how long can we let new born baby sleep before waking to to feed her?

[dickie01]

our new born is perfect and great in every respect - she is less than a week old. At night we put her down about 11 or 12pm after a final feed and she happy will sleep as long as we would let her - ie till 6am. This is 6 hours!!! We have had completely conflicting advice from the midwifes on this one - ie some say let her sleep and other say wake her every 4 hours - not letting her sleep seems as "cruel" as letting her go hungry. We are torn?!!? We are first time parents so just getting used to all this. When baby is hungry boy does she scream ie one hour after feeding for half an hour she will make it clear she if she wants more. A great communicator already. Please do help with thoughts. I know saying baby can sleep for 6 hours looks like a very non problem but waking mid sleep makes me feel so guilty. I am a dad by the way so I hope you will forgive my intrusion to mumsnet. Mum is breastfeeding and we have not used formula yet.

it depends if she is putting on weight. as she is so young I would probably not let her go more than 4 hours between feeds in the night

There are lots of Dads here and you're very welcome! How much does your dd weigh? The advice that I was given when DS3 was born (7lb 9oz) was that if they're a good weight and full term then it's fine to let them sleep. If they're small or born early then they can have issues with their blood sugars and need waking to feed. I'm not a midwife or a HV though - this was just the advice I was given. Congratulations!

I was told to wake my newborn after 4 hours as he was quite sleepy in general and needed encouragement to feed. MW was horrified when I'd let him sleep for 5 hours one night and threatened to take him into hospital. If you've been advised by any health professional to wake her then I'd be cautious and do that, if only for the first couple of weeks.

Congratulations to you both on your new baby, you'll find lots of wisdom on here.

we were told by midwives not to let DS go over four hours, he was 3 weeks early and 5lb 11 but the advice
was the same for the bigger babies too (I could hear other people getting discharged - nosey!). After the first week I didn't need to wake him anymore he was more than capable of doing it himself! Congratulations!

If they are a good weight with plenty of wet nappies and shes feeding plenty during the day personally I would let her sleep.

Dd2 slept until 8 in the morning from 11 the first night she was home, and it was me getting up that woke her. The midwife didnt say anything about it. She didnt do it again until she started to sleep through at 11 weeks.

kellymom.com/bf/normal/newborn-nursing/ - this suggests to wake 4 hourly in the early weeks (at night) and that they should feed 10-12 times at least in 24 hours - this helps build up/maintain the breastmilk supply as well as feeding the baby

Hi my daughter used to sleep through feeds too always left her to sleep your little one would wake up if she is hungry I wouldn't wake her unless she's not gaining weight